A recent visit to Colorado did not go exactly as planned, but we were still able to take in some views on the famed Million Dollar Highway that is north of Silverton. What a fantastic driving road with views that go on for miles. At least in the summer, there are no lack of amazing mountain towns to visit in a sports car to take advantage of all the sweepers, hairpins, and twisties on the roads in between all nestled in stunning setting after stunning setting.
In 2020 I visited the Art Cartopia Museum in Trinidad, Colorado where I was treated to views of the most creatively decorated cars you can imagine. One year later I was back in Trinidad, and just happened to be there the very day that these cars and many more took part in ArtoCade ArtCar Festival 2021. Seeing the cars out in broad daylight and in motion is a very different experience than seeing them parked in a dimly lit museum. This was the way these artcars were intended to be seen! After the parade, they parked on the closed off main street so you could go and get a closer look and see all the details that went into making each car a unique expression of automotive art in motion!
Telephoto Dreamscape Views of Sand Dunes in Colorado
This is my second series of photos from Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado (wide angle first series here), this time featuring all images made with a telephoto lens (Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master). You may think for landscape photography that automatically it’s best to use a wide angle lens. Many times that is the case, but when you are very far from the subject, even a very large subject like sand dunes, a telephoto lens can bring you in close, and produce a unique looking landscape image. As I was driving in to Sand Dunes National Park, I thought the sand dunes themselves looked fake, like CGI. There were this soft focus, creamy aberration before more solid, corporeal mountains. As I was leaving the park, I pulled over and took out the telephoto lens to capture these dreamscape like images. Tell me the sand dunes do not look like they were put into the photos as digitally created features?
Rural Land Drone Video and Photography now available for Colorado
Already the most prolific rural land real estate photographer and drone pilot in New Mexico, I am now offering my photography and drone services in southern Colorado. This expansion recently took me to Conejos County near La Jara and Alamosa. Hidden down nearly 10 miles of gravel road, and then hidden further in a small hamlet bordered by a hidden creek itself, this property was one of the most lush I have photographed for Hemingway Land (and also the first time I got bit my mosquitos in 2+ years!). This is a high value property and the client wanted the works: 4k drone video, aerial drone photos, and still photos in both daylight and at sunset. The drone video I made of this property opens with one of the single best clips I have ever made for any type of drone video starting at the creek and flying backwards between trees to reveal the mountains in the distance. My goal is to top each video, each shoot I made before and my effort for this property is evidence of that.
Photography sometimes take risks with amazing results
This is another instance of how my prolific rural land real estate work takes me to new and amazing places, like Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. The client actually wanted pictures of the sand dunes, so I was being paid to be there to make these photographs. I thought I was wasting my time making the long drive from Alamosa (45 minutes away) to the sand dunes because cloud cover was very heavy and the sun was nowhere to be seen. However, in my experience, the skies do open up just in time, and that was very much the case this time. The risk was worth it and paid off spectacularly as I was able to make dramatic sunset images of the sand dunes, and I even stopped later once the sun was gone from the main park itself, for telephoto shots of the dunes from afar, which I will share in another blog post. My advice is, it is always worth it to take the risk to potentially get the photos you want. At most you will waste time, but imagine if I had stayed at the hotel and saw this sunset from the hotel window instead of on the dunes themselves?
It was quite the challenge to capture the sunset at six different rural land real estate properties in Huerfano CountyColorado with only three nights to do so! This resulted in one evening being like the end of the movie Bram Stoker’s Dracula with me actually racing against the sunset to get to the last property in time before the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Unlike in the movie, I did make it before the sunset and got the shots I needed. Without having to race around in a Jeep, you can see all the sunset views made with my signature HDR technique.
Lathrop State Park in Colorado is notable for several reasons. First, it was the first state park in Colorado. Second, it is made up of not one, but two lakes! Martin Lake is for power boats and water skiers, while Horseshoe Lake is for more peaceful ventures like canoeing and kayaking. No matter which lake you choose there are stunning views of Spanish Peaks. The drone’s eye view shows how close these lakes are separated by a narrow strip of land combining for a very unique state park in Colorado! Have you ever been there?
